Baseball fans will remember the alleged plane-crash which reportedly killed Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle (and injured 11 New York firefighters) back in 2006. Apparently, "pilot error" caused his private plane to crash into the Belaire building at East 72nd in New York's upper East side, entering an apartment and injuring its owner, Ilana Benhuri. The fortunate lady, we may guess, was safely watching TV in her bath tub - and so escaped alive from the furnace.

Oh no, wait! This Daily News article from Oct 11, 2007 - a year after the event - informs us that...

"Benhuri, 51, was standing just a few feet from the window in her 30th-floor apartment and never saw the single-engine plane bearing down on her. The explosion threw her to the ground and flames licked her back."

Oh well - we may surmise that Mrs Benhuri is of the thick-skinned type. Her husband however, is none too happy about the whole affair; [quote from above article]: "Benhuri's husband, Parviz, contends he could not have sex with his wife because of her injuries".

Here we can clearly see the classic plane-shaped gash in the building - caused by the fiery impact:

And here we can see the classic soot mark we'd expect after such a fire...(everyone knows that building fires tend to spread mostly downwards - towards the lower floors) :

Benhuri, a 50-year old Iranian Jewess, was the victim of a freak accident on October 11th. New York Yankee pitcher Cory Liddle and his flight instructor were in a small plane that crashed into the 30th floor of the Upper East Side building in which she lived. Her housekeeper, Eveline Reategue, rushed into the room where Benhuri was doing some paperwork, and warned her that a plane was headed their way. As they ran from the four-bedroom apartment the plane smashed through the wall and set off a massive explosion. Although both the pitcher and his instructor were killed, Benhuri and Reategue managed to crawl out from the debris and go down the stairs.

Strangely, in the above article, no mention is made of the apple pie:

"She had been baking an apple pie for her 12-year-old son's school, and doing some paperwork at a desk in her four-bedroom apartment. She never saw the plane carrying New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle but felt it hit."http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nat ... rash_x.htm

But the future looks good. Mrs. Benhuri will soon afford to bake apple pies every single day ! "Benhuri’s lawyer, Bob Sullivan, said his client would sue Lidle’s estate and possibly the Federal Aviation Administration."http://nypost.com/2006/11/11/i-thought- ... nth-later/

Poor, poor FAA. First they get sued by Silverstein for $billions... and now THIS !

This is a strange case. The plane should have fully entered into and landed in the building and then exploded in a fire ball! Why didn't it happen? Window too strong? And then the building should have globally collapsed from top down - weak top crushing the stronger bottom - as explained by NIST and professor Bazant and there should have been a GROUND ZERO! But what happened to the plane in this case. Did it bounce off the wall and bits and pieces dropped down into the street? Anyone hurt down below? And knowing that NY are full of photographers documenting everything 365/7/24/60/60/1000 there must have been plenty footage! Too me it was another Al Qaida Bin Laden terror attack to make a mess of Mme Benhuri's apple pie. With CIA and FBI sleeping at the switches as usual. NSA probably overheard and recorded the conversation in the cockpit but was too slow to react. Conclusion - USA must spend more to keep CIA and FBI awake and NSA need more resources. And some hundred billions to US Department of War to prevent attacks on US apple pies.

Heiwa wrote:And knowing that NY are full of photographers documenting everything 365/7/24/60/60/1000 there must have been plenty footage!

Oh, sure, Heiwa: there's even this graphic & gripping clip of the actual moment of the crash - "captured by a Coast Guard surveillance camera"...

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5HwStFH9qI

And here's a 15-second long amateur clip - apparently uploaded on YT on the same day...

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkjrYqNR9PA

And you know, TV actually saved the lives of this elderly & disabled couple - Gene and Laila Weisberger! They were lucky enough to watch TV that day, as this is how they realized they had to flee their flaming building - in spite of being told by the rescue teams to to stay put inside their apartment (sounds familiar, huh?). In Mr. Weisberger's words: "I see our building is on TV, the flames coming out of the windows ... and I can see my own window... I said MY GOD! We've gotta get out of here!"

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da-woxgkyko

Cory Lidle's twin brother:"I still feel like he's just away playing ball and... I'll see him again."

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abPhVJRcRZQ

Heiwa wrote:Too me it was another Al Qaida Bin Laden terror attack to make a mess of Mme Benhuri's apple pie.

Aww, Heiwa - you will have to present proof in support of such a grave claim. But I agree this thing smells of big apple pie.

Believe it or not - but this video was supposedly uploaded on Youtube on THE DAY AFTER (oct 12, 2006) !!! A SLICK CORY LIDLE (sports superstar) TRIBUTE with only 2651 views and 19 comments - in over 7 years. Amazing.

simonshack wrote:And here's a 15-second long amateur clip - apparently uploaded on YT on the same day...

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkjrYqNR9PA

The sirens in these videos never sound natural to my ears. They are inconsistent with the other ambient background noise, not enough Doppler, maybe too compressed and normalized, like a sound file that has been inserted.